I saw this news earlier today and immediately though “why haven’t other expansion clubs done this before?” Well really only Seattle could do it since they were basically being “promoted” to the big show last year.

The Portland Timbers still have a year before they enter Major League Soccer but they are already making sure their roster will be MLS-ready. Today they signed veteran keeper Adin Brown. MLS fans will remember Brown from his time in New England back in 2002-04, he lead the Revs to a MLS Cup final in 2002.

I love this move for a couple reasons, not only do the Timbers get a quality veteran keeper this year but they also completely skip over the crazy MLS allocation process to get Brown. You see, Brown would normally go through the MLS allocation system to be placed with a club. Now Portland will have one of the first cracks at a player next year (along with Vancouver) meaning they still have a shot at a quality player. This is in a way almost a two-for-one deal.

Now Brown isn’t fully healthy yet but reports suggest he will be good to go by the middle of June. Even more important he should be 100% for the first MLS season in Portland.

Very smart of Portland to get this deal done if you ask me. It makes them better now for their USSF Division II season and for next year.

Yes the Kansas City Wizards have won the Luis Gil lottery today. They had the third best shot of winning behind New York and San Jose but according to Steve Goff they plan on shipping the talented midfielder out to a west coast team (Gil is from LA).

So which west coast team will end up with Gil? The one who gives up the most of course. KC is interested in an international slot for starters, according to Down the Byline the Wizards are after either a midfielder or a defender (article mentions midfielder but this Tweet talks defense).

I’d imagine some allocation would be apart of the mix here if not maybe a future draft pick. Or both, someone could be desperate to get Gil here for all we know.

So what are the odds? Its a four team race as I am concerned with LA and Seattle having the bet shot at trading for Gil. Most fans want to see him go to either place as both Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid are great with young players. But don’t sleep on Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake here either.

Once we hear who deals for Gil I’ll have an update here.

Update: Looks as though KC is hoping to hold on to him a little bit longer here. The Wizards want to see if Gil is interested in coming to KC (yeah right) before they take offers from Seattle, RSL and probably the two LA teams. Honestly it sounds like none of the clubs offered the right deal to KC for Gil here, maybe a day or two of dealing will get it sorted out.

This is a nice little gem that just came in from the MLS Insider. Major League Soccer has gotten themselves another prized youngster in US U-17 star Luis Gil.

A weighted lottery on Monday will determine where Gil ends up. I’d imagine the weight system will be based on last year’s results, along with Philly having a higher weight based on their expansion club status. Edit: According to Steve Goff, Philly will have the worst chance of landing Gil, with NY having the top chance.

That doesn’t always mean the worst club will end up with Gil. Last year when Kyle Davies was a subject of the lottery system he ended up in Real Salt Lake, who then traded him to Dallas days later. RSL was near the bottom of the table at that time but definitely not the club holding the most ping-pond balls.

We’ll have more on this on Monday.

To learn more about Luis Gil check out his profile from U.S. Soccer.

Michael Orozco joins the Union backline. (Getty Images)

We’ve known for a little while now that US National team defender Michael Orozco was on his way to Major League Soccer, well today that became more official. The Philadelphia Union traded allocation money to the New York Red Bulls to move up to the top spot in the allocation order to sign Orozco.

The 23-year old Orozco will be on a one-year loan (with an additional one-year option) from Mexican First Division team San Luis FC. He is yet another young gun for Piotr Nowak and company. Interesting fact is that the Union only have three guys on their current roster over 30!

This addition really helps out the Union defense going into their expansion season. With Danny Califf and Orozco it seems like Nowak is putting together a mini-National team here. Make no mistake this club should be a contender in 2010, I really believe it with these signings that they are making here.

What do you make of this signing by Philadelphia? Can you believe New York gave up their top allocation spot?

I guess this is what happens when you get stuck in traffic for a little while. I totally missed this news earlier that FC Dallas has traded Adrian Serioux to Toronto FC for a first-round draft pick and allocation money.

Serioux made it known a while back that he wanted to return to Canada to play. Now he gets his shot with a revamped TFC squad this season. Boy I gotta tell you those Reds are starting to look mighty good for this season.

What do you all make of this deal?

Tyrone Marshall gets to reunite with coach Sigi Schmid in Seattle.

Seattle is still making deals as they set up their roster for their inaugural season in MLS.

Seattle acquired defender Tyrone Marshall from Toronto FC for $100,000 in allocation money today while trading away expansion draft pick Khano Smith to New York.

Getting Marshall adds to a backline that still needed some work done to it. For Toronto it apparently means they freed up some space to sign an unnamed central defender, a big need for the Canadian side.

Seattle wasn’t done today with just Marshall, according to SBI the club has traded midfielder Khano Smith to New York in exchange for possibly allocation money or maybe a late round draft pick. Continue Reading…

Christian Gomez will soon be back in black. (Getty Images)

From what I’ve been able to gather through various reports, a trade that we’ve all been discussing for weeks looks to be in the works. Christian Gomez will return to DC United in a deal sometime in the coming week.

What will the Rapids get in return for the former MVP? Steve Goff is telling us that Colorado may get a player, some cash and possibly even the DP slot that was traded to DC last year in the Gomez deal.

Still no word on how much of the tab Colorado will have to pick up on Gomez’s salary for 2009. I would expect the Rapids will have to pick up at least a third of that salary ($385,000 base in 2008), if not more.

What do you all make of Gomez coming back to DC?